


Falling Apart

by H0rrible_excuse



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Awkward Tension, GWEN IS THE FUCKING SCHOOL NURSE ASFDGFHJ, I don't wanna spoil the relationships in this fic tbh but yeah this is gonna be a crazy angsty ride, I'm not sorry, Max isn't at prominent but he's still there, Multi, Not really a ship fic, They're all fourteen turning fifteen, We need more Neil and Nikki angst in this fandom fight me, and david is the dean, because it's my fucking aesthetic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-08 05:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11639436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H0rrible_excuse/pseuds/H0rrible_excuse
Summary: Things change. People change.But Neil doesn't want to lose his friends in the process.(AU where the kids are all in 8th grade and go to the same school.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to all of my beta readers for making this story possible! Credits to loch---nessie, IHaveNoSoul12, kitkatparade, and skullcookie17 on Tumblr!
> 
> Also, shout out to inaxchan for offering suggestions to the plot!

Max blankly stared down at his phone as he sleepily scrolled through its contents. It was almost three in the morning and he was absentmindedly messing with some apps, as he usually did at that time of night. It was rare that he attempted to get any sleep, and instead just slept through the daytime if he actually felt the need to.

But tonight was different. He was kept awake for a reason.

He jumped in reaction to his phone suddenly ringing, since he didn't expect anyone to call him. Everyone he talked to was usually asleep by now, anyway, so who could it possibly be? Squinting to check the name on the Caller ID, Max raised an eyebrow as he read "Neil" on the screen of the phone, confused as to what was even going on. Neil had never called this late before, so it must have been important.

Well, this is going to be just fantastic.

"Hello...?" Max's voice was groggier than he expected as soon as he had answered the call and held the device up to his ear.

"Max?" Came an awkward voice on the other end of the phone. He sounded unsure of himself, mainly because he thought he accidentally dialed the wrong number, as usual. Classic Neil.

"Yeah?" Max answered unenthusiastically. He usually would have had something witty to say in return, but he was honestly too exhausted for that shit.

"Hey, you awake?"

"—What do you fuckin' think?!" There it was.

"Uh, sorry. I was just making sure."

Max let out an annoyed sigh. He was about to say something, but Neil had spoken up once more.

"...So, have you... talked to Nikki recently?"

What the fuck? What kind of question was that? Good thing he was already awake, or else he would have bitch-slapped Neil the next time he saw him. But he pondered the question for a moment and realized Nikki hadn't tried to contact him recently, now that he thought about it. How peculiar.

"No, why?"

"I... have something to tell you."

He raised an eyebrow as if Neil was there and could see his reaction, not daring to utter a single word in response as confusion swelled up inside him.

"Max? Are you still there?" Neil interrupted the silence after a long pause of waiting for Max to reply.

This has seemed to snap Max out of his apparent trance. "Uh, yeah?" He began to grip the phone tightly in slight anticipation. "What, what is it?"

"I'm worried she..." His voice stirred as he spoke. "She just suddenly texted me that she was moving schools overnight. I asked what was going on, a-and she never responded. I... I’m sorry, j-just… so much happened while you were gone, and… I… I feel like it’s all my fault."

Max frowned as his hand slightly trembled. A very concerned, "What?" was all he could say as he tried to grasp what was going on.

 

* * *

 

"Max, Neil! Hurry up you slow pokes!"

The girl lightheartedly teased as she ran ahead of the two, heading to turn around and jog backwards right in front of them which resulted in an unimpressed Max rolling his eyes and Neil just shaking his head, trying to make it appear like he wasn't actually smiling.

Nikki actually appeared to change the most since the four years that they all met at Camp Campbell. She now wore a red baseball cap on her head backwards, her curly bangs pouring out from the end while the rest of her now super long hair dangled from a ponytail tied from beneath her hat. Everyone at the school had to wear a dark blue buttoned up shirt as a uniform, but she still wore a light brown vest over it, and even though she wasn’t allowed to wear anything over it, she still persisted on doing so since that was where she stuck all the souvenirs she found on her every day adventures. The girls also usually had the option of wearing a skirt, but obviously Nikki refused, wearing black jeans instead.

Max appeared pretty much the same, however, he let his poofy hair grow to medium length and wearing a similar blue hoodie to the one he had when he was younger. He keeps getting in trouble since it doesn’t fit school dress code, but he never cared and kept wearing it so eventually the school officials gave up.

Neil actually got his eyes checked two years ago, and was prescribed glasses to wear, however he felt that they didn’t exactly suit him. Most likely because of the fact that Max and Nikki would mess with him about that, but he still ended up deciding to wear contacts to keep his vision in check instead. He wore the school uniform like he was supposed to, which kind of made him look even more like a nerd than Max thought was originally possible.

Nikki, seeing Max's expression, thought that he was just pretending like he didn't care just like how he always did as she shot a determined smirk his way. "Pretty neat, huh?" She announced with a stop in pace as she hopped back between two. "I can do backwards dancing too, ya know!"

"Yeah, right." Neil raised his head to face the green haired teen right next to him, arms crossed.

"Yeah, I can! How much are you willing to bet?"

"I'm willing to bet you can't go a whole day without saying something ridiculous." Max cut in, tone pointing to the fact that he wasn't saying it harshly, but more as a playful taunt.

"You can bet your dumb 'ol hoodie you always wear that I can!"

"Okay, I will."

Nikki was going to say something in remark, at least until she accidentally bumped into Nerris, as she wasn't really paying all too much mind to her surroundings. The impact caused them both to tumble to the ground, Nerris dropping a bunch of random props that she was holding and Max and Neil proceeding to halt so they could help the two up.

“Sorry.” Nerris spoke up as soon as she dusted off her clothing. Even though she was older now, she still appeared the same, wearing her elf ears and glasses and having a long cape draped onto her school uniform. However, she no longer wore her hat and actually had gotten her braces removed not too long ago.

“Oh! Hey Nerris! Sorry ‘bout that!” Nikki chimed in as soon as she was face to face with her.

“Sheesh. Get a room you two.” Max muttered sarcastically, low enough so that only Neil could really hear.

“Hi Nikki! I was just carrying some supplies for the early morning LARPing club if you wanna join! Today we’re taking the sacred ring of avanyárima to the mountain to get rid of it once and for all.”

“Oooh, sweet! Can I help? I wanna be a ranger!”

“Sure thing!” Nerris chorused as she reached down to pick up some of the supplies she dropped, Nikki lowering to do so as well in an effort to help her out.

“Nerris? Yeah, that sounds cool and all, but your ‘roleplaying’?” Max made air quotations as he said the word. “-Literally just sounds like a rip-off of Lord of the Rings.”

“Well, yeah, it’s inspired by it but-“

“Maaax.” Nikki grunted in disappointment.

“-Sorry.”

“Hey, uh-“ Nerris began as she stood up, grasping the supplies in her possession, beaming at an idea that came to mind. “You and Neil and join in too if you want! There’s always room for more people. So far we’ve only got me, Harrison, and Pres-”

Max immediately cut her off. “Preston?”

“Yeah, he-”

“I’ll see you there, dweebs.” He declared as he took off hurriedly, heading quickly in the direction of the school.

“What’s his deal?” Nikki wondered out loud, head tilted to the side like a puppy as she raised a brow.

“I’m not sure,” Nerris commented, starting to walk in the direction where Max went. “He actually doesn’t know where the club is, does he?”

Neil shrugged. “He’s Max. He’ll figure it out.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woaaah, this took really long to get out, I'm so sorry! I promise I'm still working on this, I've just been suuuper busy with a ton of other projects lately.
> 
> The plot/story is actually gonna start next chapter, this is just some exposition to set everything in place.
> 
> Once again, thanks to all my beta readers! And another shout out to inaxchan, but this time it's for (jokingly) getting angry at me because Neil didn't appear that much in this chapter, pffft.
> 
> Beta readers: loch---nessie, IHaveNoSoul12, fatherdavid, and pyrosinniall on Tumbr!
> 
> Side note: im sorry i honestly don't know how to write nerris because i suck how are y'all doing

The school’s bell echoed throughout the empty corridors.

In less than what seemed a second, Neil immediately dashed out of his classroom, grasping his books for his next class tightly in hope that he would at least be able to near his next class before the hallway started to full to the brim with loud, talkative students. If it wasn’t obvious before, it was even more apparent now that he couldn’t stand crowded places at all, and school definitely wasn’t an exception.

An energetic Nikki and an annoyed Max tried to follow closely behind, but somehow Neil was way too fast for them, surprisingly even for the green-haired girl who could probably chase down a car if she wanted to. (And she actually has, but that’s a story for a different time)

Realizing their efforts were useless, they just slowed down since they both didn’t really care if they didn’t get to their classes before the rest of the school flooded the halls that stretched through the enormous building.

Max rolled his eyes as he watched his friend disappear, pretty sure that despite this efforts, Neil wouldn’t make it in time because half of the students were already pouring out of nearby classrooms, and it had not even been that long since the bell rang. He was about to say something to Nikki about the Neil situation, at least, until he stopped himself when he felt another presence by his side.

Nerris. Again.

“Hey Nerris!” Nikki beamed as soon as she had noticed the other girl.

“Hi Nikki! Hi Max! Guess what I just heard!”

Max finally gave Nerris his full attention as he turned to her, scowl placed upon his lips.

“About what?” He spoke up, eyebrow raised. Despite it being a question, his voice still sounded monotone, like he wasn’t really interested.

“Ooooooh!” Nikki chittered, eyes sparking in anticipation and excitement. “Tell us! Tell us!”

She began to chant multiple times, at least until Max silenced her with a raised hand that signaled for her to just shut up already.

God, Max swore that even though she were older, Nikki still acted like the same damn nine year old that he met at camp. Though it was infuriating at times, he has to admit that he could kind of respect that. Even though the world was a horrible and shitty place, she still managed to keep that spark in her eyes and her zest for life, which was an impressive feat in his opinion. It actually reminded him of David a bit, but he actually hasn’t seen the unrealistically happy camp counselor ever since the camp had shut down years ago due to Cameron Campbell being arrested. Not that he cared, anyway. The camp was stupid place and honestly he was glad that it closed down.

He was mostly just focusing on heading to his Algebra class, until he noticed Nerris at the side of his eye pull out a piece of paper with big bolded letters, seemingly out of nowhere, which caught his attention.

“You don’t even have pockets in that get-up, how the hell did yo-“

“TALENT SHOW!”

His words were interrupted by Nikki’s extremely over the top shouting, which actually made the whole hallway quiet with everyone staring at her with concern. Well, at least for only a few moments anyway, as they all just decided to shrug it off and continue going their own ways.

“Yep!” Nerris answered as she handed the paper to Nikki, who grabbed it excitedly. “Me, Harrison, and Preston were considering on teaming up and doing an act together instead of competing against each other like… last year.”

Last year’s talent show. Which definitely didn’t consist of the three trying to outdo each other, even to the point where they were sabotaging each other’s acts in an effort to win, which resulted in the whole show turning into a chaotic mess. Max wondered who in their right mind would even consider hosting another one after that, but of course, this school’s idiocy didn’t fail to amaze him yet again. Why was he even surprised at this point?

“Anyway,” Nerris continued. “I want to know if maybe you two, and Neil if he wants, could help us with the act. And maybe even participate!”

Max looked unamused. “The talent show is shitty public entertainment for shitty kids who think their stupid ass performances will get them anywhere in life, until they realize that it was all pointless ten years later when they’re stuck at a desk working a boring, lifeless, under-payed office job and wondering why the fuck winning a trophy from a meaningless talent show was even deemed important to them in the first place.”

“I’ll… take that as a no.” She turned to Nikki. “What about you?”

She nodded eagerly. “Yeah, definitely! What’s the performance thingy gonna be about?”

“We were thinking about trying a band. It was Preston’s idea, and we still haven’t found a singer since none of us can really… y’know. Sing.” She gestured at the two. “Soooo-“

Nikki made a slight grimace, and turned to Max, which was her way of asking him to do it instead of her, which immediately pissed him off to the point that it sounded as if he was growling. “Fuck that! I don’t even want to be in this stupid show, so why in hell would you even consider me?”

“Uhhhhh, okay. But what about you, Nikki?” Nerris asked, appearing to not get the hint that Nikki wasn’t really too hyped up about that idea.

And for some reason, now that Max thought about it, that seemed a little out of character for her.

“Yeah, Nikki. What about you?” He repeated, half teasingly and the other venomously. It probably wouldn’t have even sounded that mean-spirited if Max wasn’t all that irritated as he was now.

The girl whimpered. No use getting out of it. “I, uh- can’t sing. Especially, y'know, high notes.”

"I thought you were able to hit high notes? You certainly did back at camp." Nerris questioned with complete sincerity.

Nikki then gave an alarmed squeak, causing Max to stare at her, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Oh, sorry. I mean- that's fine." Nerris stammered immediately, at the same time sounding a bit disappointed.

Max returned to his usual non-caring attitude before he shot her a teasing smirk. "That's weird, you've always sorta struck me as the type to sing proudly in the shower, you and Neil both."

Nikki's only reaction to him was folding her arms and sticking her tongue out as they neared her and Max's next class, the self-proclaimed agent of chaos hurrying into the room without a single word, Max once again rolling his eyes at her strange antics while waving Nerris a quick goodbye as he followed his energetic friend closely behind.

School just barely started only a month ago, yet he somehow felt as if this year was already a crazy one.

_But that was just the beginning of it._


End file.
